FairyTail: Black Out

Chapter Twenty-Two

     Lucy's POV.

     We stared at the dragons fighting. Natsu was so busted up that for a second I thought that I might actually see Natsu lose! That was until I saw what happened next. Wendy healed Natsu's wing, he lost all the detail on the left side of his face and his wounds were still gorged. But Natsu flew at Acnologia anyways and the two dragons met in midair. I felt my breath catch in my throat and the collected gasps of horror as Natsu and Acnologia flew past each other, he decapitated Acnologia while the dragon only tore off his arm. Nobody moved for a long moment.

    "HE DID IT!" Lisanna suddenly screamed in glee, breaking the silence.

     I squealed in glee and hugged Levy. Everyone pumped their fists in the air and cheered and hugged and cried in delight. Natsu won! I couldn't believe it! I was both excited and traumatized by how he killed Acnologia.

     The celebration was quickly cut short by an agonized roar from Natsu. We all turned to look at him and saw him fall out of the sky, his body was glowing a weird golden color as he crashed into the forests below.

    "What the?" Gray said.

    "Natsu!" I shouted.

     We all immediately ran towards the spot where Natsu crashed. I jumped over the fallen pillars of our guild and moved around scattered building parts. At one instant, before we entered the forest, we ran right past Acnologia's severed head. Even in death he looks like he's angry and savage enough to kill us all. I flinched when I sprinted past his mouth. In his jaws and still clenched there was Natsu's giant black dragon's arm, it was still gripping Acnologia's spine from the neck. Blood pooled around the two dismembered body parts.

    "Jesus..." Guildarts muttered as he ran past the dead dragon's head. We hesitated then followed him through the forest. We ran past bushes, rocks and some fleeing animals and mostly dodged large and small trees. The smoke of dust where Natsu crashed was still visible in the air.

     We finally made it into a clearing where we saw Natsu. His body was still glowing and he looked unconscious. Before any of us could make any more moves, the glow around his body started moving like fire as we watched Natsu's body begin... changing?

     His claws turned into arms and the jet black scales on his body disappeared to show tan skin, his head shifted until it looked human again with the fins turning into ears and his horns retracting into his skull, where his horns should be was a head full of spiky pink hair. His tail vanished, his feet turned back into human feet and during all of this his body shrunk. We all stood there as stared until there was nothing left but Natsu wearing what he did last time we saw him. His white trousers were torn as he appeared to be wearing the same thing that he did when we last saw him as a human. The glowing yellow light flew away from his body and formed into something completely new besides him as if a spirit was leaving him.

     The black dragon we saw from earlier stood there, he looked like how they last encountered him but he had new scars on him. The left side of his face was torn, his left arm was gone but you could still see the ghostly outline of it, the scars on his side and neck were gone and many more took their place. Scars on his chest, scars on his back and arms. He was staring at Natsu with his scarlet eyes gleaming. He slowly yet quietly looked up at us.

    "Natsu!" I shouted. I ran up to him, not caring about the black dragon in front of me. His own left arm was somehow still there. He had everything but he was still critically injured and didn't look like he'd be moving for a while. I fell to my knees and held him up to hug him.

    "What the hell..." Gajeel said. "What happened?"

    "I'm sorry about possessing your friend," Kurohi said, I looked up at him but still held Natsu close. "Ghosts couldn't kill mortals so I had to resort to the last option."

    "Is he okay?" Gray asked, everyone walked over to us and looked at Natsu carefully.

    "Yes he is," Kurohi replied. "Don't worry, he's just unconscious." I looked up at the black dragon and I suddenly felt extremely angry. How could he do this to Natsu? Why?

     "Why would you do this to us if you were only after Acnologia?" I demanded. "Would it kill you for you to go on your merry way and not hurt anyone?"

    "In order to go around, do you go on your 'merry way' to make sure not to step on an occasional weed or insect, human? Acnologia is attracted to bloodshed, death and destruction. If I wanted him to come out of hiding then I had no choice but to do what I did," Kurohi said, then smiled and added slyly. "Even though I did partly do it for my own entertainment. I mean, I wasn't really fond of humans in the first place so I kind of did it for snacks. I'm not exactly one for wasting food, so Natsu may have a bad taste in his mouth when he wakes up."

     I flinched and pushed Natsu away from me and gently set him on the ground again. The dragon slayer was sleeping with a pained look on his face, as if he was having a bad dream.

    "Four hundred years since I died. I did have the power of killing off Acnologia in my time. In fact I was stronger than Igneel, my cousin, the Fire Dragon king. But however, I was a coward, I didn't want to hurt anyone, let alone kill someone. That was the key to my nature as well as my death. Acnologia began hunting down dragons and killing them, as angry as I was I didn't have the courage to kill Acnologia. When I died, nobody noticed my absence, only Igneel did but he didn't do anything about it. Thus I realized that sometimes you need to change with the new era. If one were to stay the same throughout the transformations around them, then they'd die quicker than those who actually were doing something. So I waited, I used my spirit's form to turn into a human. It was during the GMG that I finally found a fire dragon slayer with remarkable power. It was after Tartaros and me following him around did I finally find out that he wanted to kill Acnologia as well. When I found out, I finally was able to possess him since I had run out of options," Kurohi explained sorrowly. "It wasn't only that, miraculously this child was also raised by Igneel and had antibodies implanted into him. It was my only chance to finally get at Acnologia, so I took it."

    "What about us?" Wendy asked fearfully. "Won't dragons come to possess us as well?"

    "No, I already beat them to it. Every dragon's dream was to kill Acnologia once and for all, I already accomplished that so the others won't have access to you since you no longer share the same goals, which is the main ingredient to successful Dragon's Possession," Kurohi explained calmly.

     I looked over at Natsu and sighed. I am glad that he and Kurohi were able to kill Acnologia, but come to think of it, what would happen to Natsu after all this? How would he react to us telling him about the possessions?

    "Your friend will be okay, just watch over him. Usually the effects of Dragon Possession is amnesia that should last for about a week." Kurohi sighed, seeming to answer my question. "But for right now I have to go to Doragon no ten  (A/N: Japanese for "Dragon's Heaven). My time is up and it's about time for me to rejoin my cousin, my friends, and my family."

      A pink beam shot up from the sky from Kurohi's spiritual body. He spread his massive jet black wings and jumped in the air, flapping them so he could gain more altitude in the sky. Everyone watched him go.

    "I will tell your dragons you said hello," Kurohi called, directing his voice at the dragon slayers. "I'm sure they will be very proud for your bravery and boldness during the time."

     And that was it. Kurohi's body slowly vaporized and vanished within the pink light. When he vanished, Natsu's scarf somehow appeared and fluttered down to Earth. It rested on the grass with a strange black tint to it, it turned from white and scaly to a greyish color.